UK Angels Are Slow And Afraid To Make Investments

Written on October 1, 2010 – 2:58 am | by Michael Harris

Congratulations to Brainient for their round of funding in which CEO Emanuel Gal said they’d use the $800,000 they received from VCs and US Angel Investors to spend on sales.

Within that announcement, however, there was a line that puzzled us. He asserted that “UK angels are slow and afraid to make investments”. We constantly survery our 3,700 angels and they tell us they take on average 4 days to perform their due dilegence – which seems quite speedy to us. Our research has also shown that 3/4 of the business angels registered with us go with “gut feelings” when deciding to invest .

Perhaps Emanuel was more interested in the “sexy” style of Angel Investment in the US that lends itself to such parodies as [contains swearing - a lot of it]:

To us business funding isn’t about being sexy, cloak and dagger or clandestine gatherings in obscure clubs. To us small-business funding is about putting prepared entrepreneurs in front of capable Angel Investors. Our focus is getting deals done and not being the topic du jour.

In The News

But if you can’t get enough tittle tattle, here’s some interesting reading:

Inside view: How to beat the Dragons – This Is Money
Fledgling ventures flock to London for seed funding – FT
Are super angels conspiring against entrepreneurs? – Econsultancy
Lloyds in £800m funding boost for Scots businesses – Herald Scotland
The mother of invention – The Economist
North misses out on small business funding – Start-ups
Create single support fund for business, ministers urged – Scotsman

Upcoming Events:

London – Tuesday 5th October 2010 at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP, Dashwood, 69 Old Broad St, London, EC2M 1QS .
Leeds – Thursday 7th October 2010 at ALEA Casino, Leeds
Scotland – Thursday 28th October 2010 in Scotland, venue TBA

Perfect Business!